Tom Piters

Tom Peters’ X25* Enthusiasm. Energy. Empathy. Execution. Excellence. Always. XAlways. ROCHE . ATHENS .11 January 2007 * In Search of Excellence 1982-2007

“ Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.” —Henry Clay

Where Are Your “2-cent Candies”? Beltramo’ s checkout. Car p et installer booties. Sin g a p ore candies @ Immigration

The … Jim Jeffords oversight!

Slides* at … tompeters.com *also “long”

EXCELLENCE. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.

MBWA, Grameen Style! “Conventional banks ask their clients to come to their office. It’s a terrifying place for the poor and illiterate. … The entire Grameen Bank system runs on the principle that people should not come to the bank, the bank should go to the people . … If any staff member is seen in the office, it should be taken as a violation of the rules of the Grameen Bank. … It is essential that [those setting up a new village Branch] have no office and no place to stay. The reason is to make us as different as possible from government officials .” Source: Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor

“ It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change .” —Charles Darwin

“ I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs seeking escape from life within huge corporate structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for myself?’ The answer seems obvious : Buy a very large one and just wait .” —Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics

“ Forbes100” from 1917 to 1987 : 39 members of the Class of ’17 were alive in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100 “survivors” significantly under p erformed the market; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak , out p erformed the market from 1917 to 1987. S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997 : 74 members of the Class of ’57 were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997. Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market

Welcome to the “Club of Shattered Dreams”: Of Korea’s Top 100 companies in 1955, only 7 were still on the list in 2004. The 1997 crisis “destroyed half of Korea’s 30 largest conglomerates.” Source: “KET Issue Report,” Kim Jong Nyun (14.05.2005)

S&P Stability Ratings* 1985 2006 Low Risk 41% 13% Average Risk 24% 14% High Risk 35% 73% *Likelihood of stable long-term earnings growth Source: Fortune (2 October 2006)

Flat as a Pancake (Or Worse) Wal*Mart … Dell … Intel … Home Depot … Microsoft … GE

The last word: There is no last word.

S y non y ms Purity Transcendence Virtue Elegance Majesty Anton y ms Mediocrity

Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics” 1. A Bias for Action 2. Close to the Customer 3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship 4. Productivity Through Peo p le 5. Hands On , Value-Driven 6. Stick to the Knitting 7. Simple Form, Lean Staff 8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties”

ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com DJIA : $10,000 yields $85,000 EI : $10,000 yields $140,050 * Forbes / Excellence Index /Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks

“ Why in the world did you go to S iberia ?”

Business* (*at its “excellent” best) can be: An emotional, vital, audacious, innovative, joyful, frightening, risky, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that breathes life & fire into our work & life & elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted effort to help others ** [**employees, clients, suppliers, communities, owners, temporary partners] succeed & profit & imagine & reach places they’d never dreamed they could go.

EXCELLENCE. ASPIRATION. YOU & ME.

“ The First step in a ‘dramatic’ ‘organizational change program’ is obvious— dramatic personal change !” —RG

“ Work on me first.” —Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler/ Crucial Conversations

“ Every time we come to a comfort zone, we will find a way out.” “No Cloning.” “‘Reinvent the brand’ with each new show.” “A typical day at the office for me begins by asking, ‘ What is impossible that I am going to do today?’” —Daniel Lamarre, president, Cirque du Soleil

“ Excellence can be obtained if you: ... care more than others think is wise; ... risk more than others think is safe; ... dream more than others think is practical; ... expect more than others think is possible.” Source: Anon. (Posted @ tompeters.com by K.Sriram, November 27, 2006 1:17 AM)

EXCELLENCE. INNOVATE. OR. DIE.

“ I don’t believe in economies of scale. You don’t get better by being bigger. You get worse .” — Dick Kovacevich/Wells Fargo

“ Not a single company that qualified as having made a sustained transformation ignited its leap with a big acquisition or merger . Moreover, comparison companies—those that failed to make a leap or, if they did, failed to sustain it—often tried to make themselves great with a big acquisition or merger. They failed to grasp the simple truth that while you can buy your way to growth, you cannot buy your way to greatness.” —Jim Collins/ Time /2004

EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT INNOVATION IS WRONG

The Mess Is the Message! Period!

The Mess Is the Message! Period! An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States — Charles Beard (1913) The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger —Marc Levinson Tube: The Invention of Television —David & Marshall Fisher Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World —Jill Jonnes The Soul of a New Machine —Tracy Kidder Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA —Brenda Maddox The Blitzkrieg Myth —John Mosier

We become who we hang out with!

Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality Staff Consultants Vendors Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality) Innovation Alliance Partners Customers Competitors (who we “benchmark” against) Strategic Initiatives Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap) IS/IT Projects HQ Location Lunch Mates Language Board

“ The Bottleneck Is at the Top of the Bottle” “Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest reverence for industry dogma: At the to p!” — Gary Hamel/ Harvard Business Review

Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman “Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best .” “The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to discover their g reatness .”

Leadership’s Mt Everest/Mt Excellence “ free to do his or her absolute best” … “allow its members to discover their greatness.”

try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it . Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. try it. Try it. Try it. try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it.

“ This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing how few oil people really understand that you only find oil if you drill wells . You may think you’re finding it when you’re drawing maps and studying logs, but you have to drill.” Source: The Hunters , by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter

“ Experiment fearlessly” Source: BW 0821.06, Type A Organization Strategies/ “How to Hit a Moving Target”— Tactic #1

“ We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again and again. We do the same today. While our competitors are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design perfect, we’re already on prototype version # 5 . By the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we are on version # 10 . It gets back to planning versus acting : We act from day one ; others plan how to plan — for months .” —Bloomberg by Bloomberg

“ We ground up more pig brains!”

The True Logic* of Decentralization: 6 divisions = 6 “tries” 6 divisions = 6 DIFFERENT leaders = 6 INDEPENDENT “tries” = Max probability of “win” 6 divisions = 6 very DIFFERENT leaders = 6 very INDEPENDENT “tries” = Max probability of “ far out ”/” 3-sigma ” “win” *“Driver”: Law of Large #s

READY. FIRE! AIM. Ross Perot (vs “ Aim! Aim! Aim!” /EDS vs GM/1985)

“ You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” —Wayne Gretzky

TP “Lessons Learned” Innovation = DisDis (Disciplined Disorganization) Luck is a very good thing.* ** (*More “lessons” later: E.g., If you hire a bunch of disciplined weirdos and try a lot of weird stuff, the odds of getting lucky go up remarkably) (**Career success depends on convincing others that you knew what the hell you were doing all along. Good news: Say it long enough and you will believe it. Great news: Keep saying it and you, too, can become a “guru.”)

“ We have a ‘strategic plan.’ It’s called doing things .” — Herb Kelleher

Paul Allaire: “We are in a brawl with no rules.” TP: “There’s only one possible answer— S.A.V.” * * Screw Around Vigorously

“ FAIL, FAIL AGAIN. FAIL BETTER.” —Samuel Beckett

“ Fail . Forward. Fast.” High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania “Fail faster. Succeed Sooner.” David Kelley/IDEO

“ Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.” Phil Daniels, Sydney exec

“ If if feels painful and scary—that’s real delegation” —Caspian Woods, small biz owner

“ Execution is the j ob of the business leader .” —Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“ GE has set a standard of candor. … There is no puffery. … There isn’t an ounce of denial in the place .” —Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen, on the “GE mystique” (Fortune)

EXCELLENCE. VALUE ADDED. UP THE LADDER.

EXCELLENCE. VALUE-ADDED LADDER I. SOLVE IT.

Up, Up, Up, Up the Value-added Ladder.

The Value-added Ladder/ OPPORTUNITY-SEEKING Gamechanging Solutions Services Goods Raw Materials

“ The business of selling is not just about matching viable solutions to the customers that require them. It’s equally about managing the change process the customer will need to go through to implement the solution and achieve the value promised by the solution. One of the key differentiators of our position in the market is our attention to managing change and making change stick in our customers’ organization.” * (*E.g.: CRM failure rate/Gartner: 70 %) —Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap, Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale

EXCELLENCE. SOLVE IT. NO OPTION. PSF. (PSF++)

Department Head to … Managin g Partner , IS [HR, R&D, etc.] Inc .

Core Mechanism : “Game-chan g in g Solutions” PSF (Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle ) + Brand You (“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent ) + Wow! Projects (“Different” vs “Better”/The Work )

HCare CIO : “Technology Executive” (workin’ in a hospital) Or/to: Full-scale, Accountable (life or death) Member-Partner of XYZ Hospital’s Senior Healin g -Services Team (who happens to be a techie)

EXCELLENCE. VALUE-ADDED LADDER II. EXPERIENCE IT.

“ Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from goods.” —Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore, The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage

Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!” “What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him.” Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership

The Value-added Ladder/ MEMORABLE CONNECTION Spellbinding Experiences Gamechanging Solutions Services Goods Raw Materials

EXCELLENCE. OPPORTUNITY. ENORMOUS. WOMEN.

“ Idiot” is too kind a word.

“ That’s a VERY diverse team.” — Patrick Cescau, CEO, Unilever * ** * 1 of 14 Board of Directors members is a woman (not an exec); 2 of 7 Exec Team members are … Indians. (Source: FT/24-25 June.) ** Approximately 85% of Unilever’s products are purchased by … women.

“ That’s a VERY sick man.” — Tom Peters

“ Women are the majority market” —Fara Warner/ The Power of the Purse

Selling to men: The TRANSACTION Model Selling to Women: The RELATIONAL Model Source: Selling to Men, Selling to Women , Jeffery Tobias Halter

Editorial/Men : Tables, rankings.* Editorial/ Women : Narratives that cohere.* *Redwood (UK)

WOMEN. DOMINATE. ECONOMIC. GROWTH.

“ Forget China , India and the Internet : Economic Growth Is Driven by Women .” —Headline, Economist , April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14

10 UNASSAILABLE REASONS WOMEN RULE Women make [all] the financial decisions. Women control [all] the wealth. Women [substantially] outlive men. Women start most of the new businesses. Women’s work force participation rates have soared worldwide. Women are closing in on “same pay for same job.” Women are penetrating senior ranks rapidly [even if the pace is slow for the corner office per se]. Women’s leadership strengths are exceptionally well aligned with new organizational effectiveness & value-added imperatives. Women are better salespersons than men. Women buy [almost] everything—commercial as well as consumer goods. So what exactly is … the point of men ?

Not Just America … “Boys Falling Seven Years Behind Girls at GCSE Level” —headline, Weekly Telegraph , UK, 10.25.06

COROLLARY. EXCELLENCE. WOMEN. RULE.

“ AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE : New Studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure” TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek

Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives : Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender ; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity . —Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers

Women’s Ne g otiatin g Stren g ths *Ability to put themselves in their counterparties’ shoes *Comprehensive, attentive and detailed communication style *Empathy that facilitates trust-building *Curious and attentive listening *Less competitive attitude *Strong sense of fairness and ability to persuade *Proactive risk manager *Collaborative decision-making Source: Horacio Falcao, Cover story/May 2006, World Business , “Say It Like a Woman: Why the 21 st -century negotiator will need the female touch”

EXCELLENCE. OPPORTUNITY. ENORMOUS. BOOMERS. GEEZERS.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “ People turning 50 today have more than half of their adult life ahead of them.” —Bill Novelli, 50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America

EXCELLENCE. BEDROCK. LEADERSHIP. 9Ps. L23.

PURPOSE . PASSION . Potential . Presence . Personal . PERSISTENCE . PEOPLE . Potent . Positive .

“ People want to be part of something larger than themselves . They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for , sacrifice for , trust .” — Howard Schultz, Starbucks ( IBD /09.05)

“ Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“ Whenever anything is being accomplished, I have learned, it is being done by a monomaniac with a mission.” —Peter Drucker

“ Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision or powerful ideas. But the reality is much more primal : Great leadership works through the emotions .” —Daniel Goleman, The New Leaders

“ To meet Roosevelt, said Churchill, ‘with all his buoyant sparkle, his iridescence,’ was like ‘opening a bottle of champagne.’ Churchill, who knew both champagne and human nature, recognized ebullient leadership when he saw it.” —Kay Redfield Jamison, Exuberance : The Passion for Life “ Churchill had a very powerful mind, but a romantic and unquantitative one. If he thought about a course of action long enough, if he achieved it alone in his own inner consciousness and desired it passionately, he convinced himself it must be possible. Then, with incomparable invention, eloquence and high spirits, he set out to convince everyone else that it was not only possible, but the only course of action open to man.”—C.P. Snow “ We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.”—Churchill on Churchill “ The multitudes were swept forward till their pace was the same as his.”—Churchill on T.E. Lawrence

“ In the end, management doesn’t change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture.” —Lou Gerstner

“ The role of the Director is to create a space where the actors and actresses can become more than they’ve ever been before, more than they’ve dreamed of being .” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. Michelangelo

“ You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi

“ It’s alwa y s showtime.” —David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare

Relentless : “One of my superstitions had always been when I started to go anywhere or to do anything, not to turn back , or stop, until the thing intended was accomplished.” —Grant

" The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.” —GB Shaw, Man and Superman: The Revolutionists' Handbook.

“ Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” —William Feather, author

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting ‘ GERONIMO!’ ” — Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer ( Cycle magazine)

“ Leaders ‘ do ’ people. Period.” —Anon.

“ Beware of the tyranny of making Small Changes to S mall Things. Rather, make Big Changes to Big Things.” —Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo

Kevin Roberts’ Credo 1 . Ready. Fire! Aim. 2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it! 3. Hire crazies. 4. Ask dumb questions. 5. Pursue failure. 6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way! 7. Spread confusion. 8. Ditch your office. 9. Read odd stuff. 10. Avoid moderation !

On NELSON: “[other] admirals more frightened of losing than anxious to win”

EXCELLENCE. THE LEADERSHIP23.

Leadershi p 23/ML 1. Enthusiasm. Energy. Exuberance. 2. Action. Execution. 3. Tempo. Metabolism. 4. Relentless. 5. Master of Plan B. 6. Accountability. 7. Meritocracy. 8. Leaders “do” people. Mentor. (“Success creation business.”) 9. Women. Diversity. 10. Integrity. Credibility. Humanity. Grace. 11. Realism. 12. Cause. Adventures. Quests.

Leadershi p 23/ML 13. Legacy. 14. Best story wins. 15. On the edge. (“Wildest chimera of a moonstruck mind.”) 16. “Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.” 17. Different > Better. (“Only ones who do what we do.”) 18. MBWA. Customer MBWA. 19. Laughs. 20. Repot. Curiosity. Why? 21. You = Calendar. “To Don’t.” Two. 22. Excellence. Always. 23. Nelsonian! (“Other admirals more afraid of losing than anxious to win.”)

Tom Piters

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Tom Piters